Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of treating patients with prostate cancer that was not identified at an early stage; and what steps they are taking to improve early diagnosis.

The Department is committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing prostate cancer earlier and treating it faster. In January 2025, NHS England re-launched its Abdominal and urological symptoms of cancer phase of the Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, including symptoms of urological cancers, as well as encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point.

In addition, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways. This includes the introduction of a best-practice timed pathway for prostate cancer so that those suspected of having prostate cancer receive a multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging scan first, which ensures that only those men most at risk of having cancer undergo an invasive biopsy. For patients, the prostate best-practice timed pathway may reduce anxiety and uncertainty of a possible cancer diagnosis, with less time between referral and receiving the outcome of a diagnostic test.

A new National Cancer Plan will be published later this year which will include further details on how the NHS will improve outcomes for all cancer patients, including those with prostate cancer. The plan will set out actions for speeding up diagnosis and treatment.

Given the wide-ranging work being taken forward, the Department has not made a formal assessment of the specific cost of treating patients with prostate cancer that was not identified at an early stage.